Prosecuting Evil

"Prosecuting Evil" tells the story of Ben Ferencz, one of the prosecutors at the Nuremberg trial.

The film shows his childhood, his parents escape from Europe and his adolescence. He served in the military, and then later became a student at Harvard Law School.

CBS news did a story on Ferencz:

"He finished at Harvard then enlisted as a private in the Army. Part of an artillery battalion, he landed on the beach at Normandy and fought in the Battle of the Bluge. Toward the end of the war, because of his legal training, he was transferred to a brand new unit in General Patton's Third Army, created to investigate war crimes. As U.S. forces liberated concentration camps, it was his job to rush in and gather evidence."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-the-last-nuremberg-prosecutor-alive-ben-ferencz-wants-the-world-to-know-60-minutes-2019-06-30/

After the war, he began to investigate the crimes of the Einsatzgruppen:

"These volunteer killing squads were made up of thousands of elite SS officers. One of their main tasks was to kill all Jewish men, women and children in the areas that were being conquered. The method was usually to take them out of the town or village to a forest or open land, make them dig pits and undress, and then shoot them all."

https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/the-final-solution/german-expansionism/the-einsatzgruppen/

After the war, having been to the camps and seeing many atrocities and crimes against humanity, Ferencz was made chief prosecutor of the Einsatzgruppen officers. The film recounts Ferencz's investigation of crimes perpetrated, and the numbers of victims. When he reached one million people, Ferencz knew he could then proceed with the trial.

The goal of the was to prosecute Einsatzgruppen officers as well as create legal precedence for crimes against humanity that had never before been seen on this Earth.

Since World War II we have had countless examples of the annihilation of people, defined as "genocides" and "ethnic cleansings"-Bosnia, Rwanda, Darfur. We didn't keep our end of the pledge when we said "Never Again." This film reminds us of this fact, and points out that there is legal recourse for these crimes, all of which is due to the direct effort of Ben Ferencz.

Now streaming on Netflix; also available on YouTube, Amazon Prime, Google Play, Vudu. 3 stars.